Area postal worker reports possible sighting last week

A New Mexico State Patrol diver enters the water at Vallecito Reservoir near the dam on Sunday afternoon to search an area where cadaver dogs had led searchers.

JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald

A New Mexico State Patrol diver enters the water at Vallecito Reservoir near the dam on Sunday afternoon to search an area where cadaver dogs had led searchers.

VALLECITO – A dive team from New Mexico State Police searched near the dam at Vallecito Reservoir on Sunday for missing teenager Dylan Redwine. The boy was first reported missing from his father’s home at Vallecito on Nov. 19.

At the same time, authorities are looking to talk to two boys who were spotted by a female postal worker northbound about 2 p.m. Nov. 19, in the 18000 block of County Road 501, at the Vallecito Lake Country Market, according to La Plata County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dan Bender.

The postal worker knows Dylan and said one of the boys looked just like him, Bender said.

Both boys reportedly were wearing hooded sweatshirts and had black backpacks, Bender said the postal worker told investigators. Dylan reportedly had a black backpack with him when he arrived at the Vallecito home of his father, Mark Redwine.

Bender emphasized the boys are not in any trouble. He asked them to contact Sheriff’s Office Investigator Tanya Golbricht at 382-7019.

The New Mexico State Patrol divers searched an area targeted by trained cadaver dogs from La Plata Search and Rescue. On Saturday, the dogs had repeatedly “hit” on several spots near the dam while aboard watercraft.

Temporary buoys were placed in the spots and the dive team searched in about 40 feet of cold water. No body had been found as of about 3 p.m. Sunday.

The dogs are trained to distinguish between human remains and animal remains, according to handlers Rae Dreves and Katie Steelman, both of Durango. Their dogs are Selah and Darc, respectively.

The third dog on the search, Cayenne, is handled by Roy Vreeland of Bayfield.

Once the dogs are trained for land-based cadaver searches, they can then be trained for water searches, the handlers said.

The K-9 teams joined other searchers on Middle Mountain Saturday.

Dylan, 13, a former Bayfield Middle School student, had just arrived the evening of Nov. 18, from his new home in Colorado Springs for a court-ordered visit with his father, Mark Redwine.

Dylan was expected to meet with friends in Bayfield Monday morning, but didn’t show up, according to those friends. His father checked with the friends later that afternoon when he could not find Dylan at home.

In addition to the divers, volunteer searchers from the area also continued their efforts. Some 30 or more volunteers walked County Road 501 from Bayfield to the reservoir Sunday, looking in ditches and other likely spots, according to Denise Hess. Hess is a family friend and organizer of the volunteers.

“Today, there’s a lot more concern,” Hess said Sunday, the seventh day of Dylan’s disappearance.

She added that the volunteers, like the family, are feeling more frustrated at the lack of progress.

“They’re worried,” Hess said.

La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is “working with local representatives of the FBI to share information and resources as they continue to develop leads on where Dylan may be,” Bender said in a news release issued before the divers went into the water.

“Scenarios from abduction to runaway are being examined,” the release said. “Without any new clues, we have to continue to consider any and all possibilities, he said.

Redwine told investigators that Dylan was at his house on County Road 500 when he left to run some errands about 7:30 a.m. Monday, Bender said in the release.

Redwine said Dylan was gone from the house when he returned about 11:30 a.m. Several of Dylan’s friends Saturday told The Durango Herald they had arranged to meet him at 6:30 a.m. Monday, but he didn’t show.

Bender also repeated that Dylan is 5 feet tall, 105 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Dylan’s mother, Elaine Redwine, and older brother, Cory, have been in La Plata County since receiving word of his disappearance and have been working closely with searchers and investigators, Bender said in the release. Other family members and people close to the family are in the area as well.

Bender reminded residents that anyone who may have information about Dylan’s whereabouts is asked to call La Plata County Sheriff’s Office investigators Dan Patterson at 382-7015, or Tom Cowing at 382-7045.

Anyone with information also can call the hotline for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678.